Delegates from around the world will meet Monday in New York in a bid to resolve differences left after a drafting session earlier this year to frame a 33-article draft convention designed to protect the rights of persons with disabilities. If negotiations are successful, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will …

Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks may serve up to seven more years in US military custody before facing trial under a new military tribunal system, his military lawyer Major Michael Mori said Sunday. Since the US Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld found US military commissions as …

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the US to deny a request from Israel to provide cluster munitions for use against targets in Lebanon. HRW wrote a letter to National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley Friday in response to a New York Times report that revealed Israel had requested expedited delivery of short …

Ali al-Shemri, head of Iraq's Ministry of Health, alleged Sunday that US troops wrongfully detained five members of his personal security force and stole their salaries during an early morning raid of the Health Ministry Building. An anonymous coalition official said the raid was conducted following a tip related to a kidnapping. Al-Shemri denied allegations that the …

The Australian government's proposed Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill that would require asylum seekers arriving by boat to be processed at offshore camps faces a close vote in the Senate this week, Australian media reported Sunday. The bill passed the Australian House of Representatives on Thursday by a margin of …

Federal prosecutors have asked US District Court Judge Sim Lake to order former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling to pay $182.2 million for his part in the conspiracy with Kenneth Lay on counts of fraud, conspiracy, and insider trading. Originally the government had split the amount between the two - …

The speaker of Iran's parliament indicated Sunday that the country would pull out of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if what he called its "inalienable rights" to uranium enrichment were taken away. Gholam-Ali Hadad-Adel stated that such a withdrawal "is well justified." Referring to the UN Security Council resolution passed last month …

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told the parents of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a July 12 raid that Israel is willing to negotiate with Hezbollah for their release, Haaretz newspaper reported Sunday. Olmert said before that he would not negotiate to free the soldiers, but Israel has previously traded prisoners for its own …